by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
Volunteers with the Christian Legal Society hope the work they’re doing will be just the boost needed to give their short-term “clients” a new lease on life.
For the past two years, attorneys have taken their Pro Bono Project to the City Rescue Mission, which runs a Lifebuilders recovery program at its McDuff Street location.
“It’s a pretty comprehensive program,” said Blane McCarthy, director of the project. “It deals with recovery issues in terms of substance abuse and otherwise deals with basic educational issues, job training and placement, and independent living.”
Those who are enrolled in the program take 18 months to graduate, “and that’s where we’re working,” McCarthy added. “We’re trying to help with particular obstacles that are in the way of these individuals trying to rebuild their lives.
“Often, legal baggage is significant in keeping them from where they need to be.”
Two teams, totaling better than a dozen lawyers, visit the site every 10 weeks, one group each on Tuesday and Thursday nights. The schedule corresponds with the schedule of incoming groups, which start the program about every five weeks.
“So every 10 weeks we’re kind of getting newer faces coming on campus,” said McCarthy, who has served two terms as CLS president.
With the group split in half, individual attorneys are asked to visit the site once every 20 weeks.
The pro bono teams have conducted 136 interviews and accepted 95 cases. Eighteen cases have been referred to other attorneys.
“My perception is a lot of similar projects are going into the homeless shelters, doing intake, then giving all the files to Jacksonville Area Legal Aid for them to handle and distribute,” said McCarthy. “We want to be the actual providers of service, not just interviewers.”
Having volunteers go to the McDuff Street site, he said, may seem to be a small thing. But it makes a big difference.
“I suspect if the service was not provided so easily to them that it would be more likely to be ignored,” said McCarthy. “It takes some effort for somebody at a remote campus to get downtown and for them to know where Jacksonville Legal Aid is or someone else who might service them.
“For ‘normal’ folks that’s not a big deal. But if you’re homeless and living in a recovery program, that can probably be a big obstacle, one that may be insurmountable for some people.”
The problems handled by volunteers sometimes are as basic as collections and outstanding debts. Occasionally, there are family and domestic issues.
More often the problem is with a driver’s license, “in the form of an outstanding unpaid ticket or warrant in another state,” said McCarthy. “Because of that, they can’t get a Florida driver’s license. And because of that they’re having a hard time securing a job because they can’t get to and from work.”
McCarthy, who primarily handles injury claims and also works as a mediator, has been practicing law since 1995. He opened his own practice in 1998.
“Happenstance” got him involved in CLS in 1997.
“The word of the organization wasn’t well known, at least it wasn’t well known to me,” he said. “I happened to strike up a conversation with a fellow lawyer at the YMCA, and he brought it up. I was glad to hear there was such a thing.”
Instead of a formal membership, the Christian Legal Society has an “extensive contact list,” which includes between 100 and 150 names. The group’s main function is the monthly luncheon, which typically draws between 20 and 30 people. A speaker of note, however, may bring in a larger crowd, McCarthy said.
Luncheons are held the second Friday of each month, except in January, July and August.
CLS also conducts weekly Bible studies on Tuesday mornings and hosts ethics seminars.
The group’s motivation for forming and continuing the Pro Bono Project “really is more Biblical than anything else.” said McCarthy. “We feel we’ve been called to help those in need.”
The future would be a bit bleaker if the volunteers weren’t there to meet that need, he added.
“I suspect what would likely happen is a lot of those legal issues would go ignored,” said McCarthy. “Some of them would probably prevent these folks from graduating and completing the Lifebuilders program because they couldn’t find work or they had some outstanding warrants that weren’t being addressed. So they couldn’t really rejoin society productively.
“Some might get through, somehow, but they would still have that black cloud looming over their heads.”